John Lewis sales dip and fashion is down as well

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jul 31, 2018

It was Waitrose supermarkets that once again carried John Lewis Partnership through in the latest week with the overall company seeing a 2.4% sales rise to almost £210 million on the back of strength in grocery.

Meanwhile the John Lewis department stores chain itself saw its sales falling 2.2% in the seven days up to July 28, “with the continued heatwave last week impacting sales.”

While the hot weather has had a positive impact on fashion sales in previous weeks, this time round it failed to provide enough of a boost to make up for shortfalls in other fashion areas and the retailer’s Fashion directory sales fell 2% overall.

Warm weather clothing itself rose an impressive 29%, but similar rises were not seen in other categories. Menswear was seen as a good performer during the week, yet it still only rose 2.1%. It was interesting too that the company didn't call out its own-brands this week. These have been sales drivers in previous weeks but we have to assume that the performance didn't seem strong enough to comment on this time.

And the company's perennially sluggish directory, Home, continued to under-perform with sales down 7.8%, although outdoor living had a particularly strong week with sales up 50%. Bathshop also had a good week, driven by sales of towels, with beach towels in particular up 28%.